Casque & Gauntlet Trust

“Administration of the trust resides with its trustees and, for certain decisions, the alumni holders of "trust certificates". No new trust certificates have been issued in recent decades. Based on a thorough examination of records, an overwhelming majority of the outstanding trust certificates are held by the trustees as a group.”

“Both the treasurer and the co-chair of the trustees review the 990 before it is filed to check for accuracy and correctness. They also provide a copy of the finished product to all trustees before filing.”

“All financial matters are handled solely by an independent treasurer who is not a trustee and who is the only individual able to disperse cash. The treasurer receives advance approval for all significant cash outlays from at least two of the trustees. Ongoing financial reports and a description of significant cash outlays are provided for all trustees. All significant actions taken by the trust are voted on by the trustees in a meeting where the intended motions are detailed in advance. During this fiscal year, the trust's conflict of interest policy was reviewed by trustees and again approved august 2023. Given these core processes, the primary approach for ensuring ongoing compliance with the conflict of interest policy is to request, prior to any trustee vote, that each trustee identify any conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest. During this fiscal year, this approach was followed. One trustee continued to request that they not be involved in either discussions or voting on a specific matter based on a concern that there might be potential appearance of a conflict of interest. This request was honored even though the trustees could not identify an actual conflict of interest. There were no other conflicts of interest identified.”

“The organization allows the public to request the documentation, and it is provided upon request.”

“From june 1964 until march 15, 2020 - when the covid pandemic caused dartmouth college to cease in-person operations for several months - the casque & gauntlet trust had used its real estate holding at 1 south main st., hanover, nh and its financial resources to provide housing and programmatic support for the casque & gauntlet, inc., an entity that comprised both current dartmouth students as well as prior alumni members linked to a certain senior society at dartmouth. Beginning in late march 2020, the trustees of the casque and gauntlet trust met several times to discuss how the trust could continue to survive in the short term as well as what its longer-term future might be based on the several significant challenges confronting it - including that dartmouth's move to virtual operations had reduced the organization's real estate income to 0 even while expenses continued - with minimal cash reserves available. In july 2020, in order to avoid immediate insolvency, the trust completed a three-year, 1 per year lease on its 1 south main st property to dartmouth whereby the college would use it for graduate student housing and cover all operating expenses. The lease allowed the trust to protect its remaining cash balances. Importantly, it also ensured that the trust had adequate time to assess thoughtfully the trustees' questions regarding viable go-forward financial and operating models for the real estate as well as regarding the future of the real estate and the trust itself - all in the context of the mission of the trust. The trust sought and received advice from outside legal counsel in support of its deliberations. In december 2020, the casque and gauntlet, inc. The entity for which the trust had historically provided programmatic support but which was independent of the trust, made the linked decisions - also largely based on challenges caused and revealed by the pandemic - to move toward dissolution and, at the same time, to sponsor two new entities, each building on a separate aspect of the corporation's historical mission. During 2021, 2022, and early 2023, the trustees continued an active exploration of possible alternative paths forward working in conjunction with dartmouth college. Prior to the expiration of the property lease in july 2023, dartmouth excerised its one-year extension provision, thus extending the lease term to july 31, 2024. Moving into the current fiscal year beginning september 1, 2023, it was the trustees' expectation that, guided by the mission of the trust and working collaboratively with dartmouth college, an appropriate use for the real estate would be identified and, at that point, the trust might then continue to operate or it might dissolve. In december 2023, following several unproductive exchanges during the prior months, dartmouth approached the trust to ask if a way could be found to deploy its assets in support of the new dartmouth dialogues project that the college had been quietly incubating, required significant funding, and would soon be publicly announced. The trustees immediately recognized in the dartmouth dialogues project a focus on many of the core elements represented by the trust's historic mission. Several meetings between the trustees and college leadership took place during december. Independent lawyers were engaged by both the trust and dartmouth to review the trust's charter, relevant state law, trustee authorities, and the specifics of a proposed transaction whereby the trust would sell its 1 s main st real estate and furnishings to dartmouth for 2,200,000 (the appraised fair- market value) and then turn around and donate the cash received (plus some modest excess operating cash) to dartmouth, specifically targeted to support the dartmouth dialogues project. The sale/donation arrangement with casque and gauntlet trust was formally announced by dartmouth college on january 24th in conjunction with the public launch of the dartmouth dialogues project. The same day, the”

“During this fiscal year (as has been the case since 2020 when the covid pandemic forced a dramatic change in our organization), the original mission-related activities of the trust were no longer either actionable or relevant. However, during this fiscal year, the trust/trustees successfully accomplished several important things including: a) determining a path forward consistent with the trust's mission and charter; b) securing resources to execute on this, including by selling off the assets/property held by the trust (i.e. 1 s. Main st, hanover, nh) to dartmouth college at an appraised fair market value and in a manner consistent with the provisions of its charter; c) donating all of its cash including that received from the sale of 1 s main st and all residual cash from operations to dartmouth college in support of a specific new program at dartmouth that closely matched the original mission of the trust and in a manner consistent with the provisions of its charter; d) with support from outside counsel (who also advised on the above actions) and in a manner consistent with the provisions of its charter, executing a final dissolution of the trust effective august 29 2024, given that, following the donations to dartmouth, the trust no longer had residual mission or resources, and its original mission had been fulfilled to the best of the trustees' ability. No trustee received any financial or non-financial benefit via the actions taken during this final fiscal year (or before that) in accomplishing the above. No trustee was ever paid or received non-cash remuneration for their time or services on behalf of the trust”